It’s that time again! The summer when athletes in various disciplines and spectators from all over the world gather in one place to celebrate sports, win medals, and take home the title of the Olympic champion.
The Olympic Games 2024 is almost here. Officially referred to as the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad or under its brand name of Paris 2024, it will start 26 July 2024 and keep sports fans glued to their screens until 11 August 2024.
This time the honour to host the Games fell on Paris. Together with five other cities, the French capital submitted its bid to the International Olympic Committee on 15 September 2013. The other candidates were Hamburg, Los Angeles, Budapest, Rome, and Boston. However, later, other cities withdrew their bids, leaving Paris and Los Angeles as the only contestants. As a result, on 13 September 2017 it was announced that Paris would host the Olympic Games 2024, while Los Angeles would do the same in 2028.
This is the third time Paris will be hosting the Olympic Games. The first time the French capital welcomed athletes from around the world was in 1900 and then again in 1924. Only one other city hosted the Olympics three times: London in 1908, 1949, and 2012.
Olympic Games 2024: Preparations
The overall cost of the Games is estimated at €9 billion. As the preparations were in full swing, several adjustments had to be made for the proceedings to run smoothly. For example, 2024 will be the first year Tour de France won’t end its final stage in Champs-Élysée. To make sure two sporting events didn’t clash, the organizers of Tour de France opted to redirect the race to Nice, France.
Venues
While Paris and its metropolitan region remain the main host city of the Games, several events will be conducted in other locations in France and French overseas territories. Thus, Lille will host basketball preliminaries and handball finals, sailing will be conducted in the coastal city of Marseille, football games will also be played in Marseille along with five other cities, while surfing events are planned to take place overseas, in the Teahupo’o village in French Polynesia.
A number of existing, additional, and temporary venues are ready to welcome the athletes, with Grand Paris zone housing seven, Paris Centre zone 12, and Versailles zone 4 venues. Additionally, there are 11 outlying venues. Non-competitive facilities include the location for the opening ceremony, the Olympic village, media village, International Broadcast Centre, and main press centre.
Medals
Designed by the French luxury jewelry brand Chaumet, the obverse of the Paris 2024 medals includes hexagon-shaped tokens of scrap iron that comes from the original construction of the Eiffel Tower. The reverse features the Greek goddess of victory Nike inside the Panathenaic Stadium, the venue of the first modern Olympic Games conducted in 1896. Parthenon and the Eiffel Tower are added in the background on both sides.
Olympic Games 2024 president Tony Estanguet revealed the medals for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games in February 2024. Each medal weighs 455-529 g, with the golden ones made with 98.8 percent silver and 1.13 percent gold, while the bronze ones are made from copper, zinc, and tin.
Security
Under the preparation for Paris 2024, France has reached agreements with several international partners who agreed to provide support in tightening the security before and during the Games.
Due to security concerns, earlier plans to turn the opening ceremony into a public event on the banks of the river Seine had to be modified. The estimated number of attendees was reduced from 600,000 to 300,000, and free viewing locations became later by invitation only. With certain security concerns after threats towards the UEFA Champions League quarter finals, the French government considers the possibility to relocate the opening ceremony indoors.
The Olympic Torch Is On Its Way
As the tradition dictates, the Olympic torch was lit on 16 April in Olympia, Greece. With a hundred days to go before the Games officially start, the torch is set to travel from Olympia to France by sea and by land to light the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony.
The Greek rower Stefanos Douskos was the first torchbearer, while the French swimmer Laure Manaudou was the first to pick up the torch when it came to France. With four captains of torch relay and 10,000 torchbearers, the Olympic fire will travel around 400 settlements in French territories. Unfortunately, on May 18, the stretch of the relay going through New Caledonia was cancelled due to civil unrest.
The torch completed its Greek leg on 26 April, when it embarked the three-masted barque Belem and sailed across the Mediterranean to Marseille. The leg in the metropolitan France includes a small detour to Monaco.
Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony will begin around 19:30 Central European Time on 26 July, 2024. As the Olympic Games 2024 were branded as the “people’s Olympics”, this is the first time when the opening ceremony was planned to be conducted not in an indoor venue, but rather outdoors. The parade of nations that traditionally opens the ceremony with delegations of athletes marching into the arena led by respective flagbearers was to be conducted as a boat parade on the Seine.
Initially, only the lower banks along Seine were to be ticketed, with the public having free access to approximately 200,000 viewing spots on the upper banks. However, due to security concerns, not only was the entire ceremony significantly scaled down, but the access to all viewing spots on the river banks became by invitation only. Should the necessity arise, the organizing party is ready to relocate the opening ceremony into Stade de France.
The closing ceremony that is to take place on 11 August, 2024 was scheduled to be conducted indoors from the very beginning. Thomas Jolly and Ben Winston are invited to direct the opening and closing ceremony respectively.
Official Insignia of Paris 2024
The official emblem of the current games was first revealed on 21 October, 2019. The gold and white symbol represents Marianne, the national personification of France, with the white negative space forming the Olympic flame. The President of the Olympic Game 2024 Tony Estanget explained that the emblem carried “the power and the magic of the Games”, at the same time strengthening the concept of the Games being “for people”.
The emblem has another symbolic meaning. The 1900 Olympic Games in Paris were the first in history where women were allowed to participate. Having a female figure to represent the current Games pays homage to the historical event. Inspired by art deco, it was designed by the French designer Sylvain Boyer, who currently represents the French brand management agency Royalties.
The mascots for the Olympic and Paralympic Games were unveiled on 14 November 2022. They are a pair of anthropomorphic Phrygian caps that historically represent freedom and liberty in France. Marianne is also often depicted wearing a Phrygian cap in works of art.
What Sports Are Participating in the Olympic Games 2024?
The 2024 Summer Olympics have an extensive programme that features 329 events in 32 sports. 28 out of them are the so-called “core” sports that were also included in the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 editions. The remaining four are the so-called optional sports that were proposed by the Paris Organising Committee.
Out of these, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing were first introduced in the Olympic Games 2020. Breakdancing, also known as breaking, will debut as an Olympic sport this year after a successful participation in the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.
Certain changes have been made within some sports, such as weightlifting, canoeing, and sport climbing, with some events being dropped, replaced, or split into separate disciplines.
During the bidding process in 2017, the Paris Organising Committee proposed inclusion of esports as a competitive event. However, the IOC confirmed in July 2018 that esports wouldn’t be considered for the 2024 Olympics.
Here is the full list of sports participating in the Summer Olympic Games 2024:
- Artistic swimming
- Diving
- Marathon swimming
- Swimming
- Water polo
- Archery
- Athletics
- Badminton
- Basketball (basketball & 3×3 basketball)
- Boxing
- Breaking
- Canoeing (slalom & sprint)
- Cycling (BMX freestyle, BMX racing, mountain biking, road, track)
- Equestrian (dressage, eventing, jumping)
- Fencing
- Field hockey
- Football
- Golf
- Gymnastics (artistic, rhythmic, trampoline)
- Handball
- Judo
- Modern pentathlon
- Rowing
- Rugby sevens
- Sailing
- Shooting
- Skateboarding
- Sport climbing
- Surfing
- Table tennis
- Taekwondo
- Tennis
- Triathlon
- Volleyball (volleyball & beach volleyball)
- Weightlifting
- Wrestling (freestyle & Greco-Roman)
If you can’t wait for the Summer Olympics to start, stay tuned! We are committed to bringing all the latest news and important updates to you. Enjoy the Olympic Games 2024 experience, support your favourite athletes, and be the first to learn every important development!